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    Conceiving selves: a case study of changing identities during the transition to motherhood

    Smith, Jonathan A. (1991) Conceiving selves: a case study of changing identities during the transition to motherhood. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 10 (4), pp. 225-243. ISSN 0261-927X.

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    Abstract

    This qualitative study follows one woman through her pregnancy and transition to motherhood, and is concerned with the changes which occur in her accounts of identity. The study has a dual focus: on the changing identity of the woman herself as she becomes a mother, and on the simultaneous construction of an identity for the growing foetus. The complex and ambiguous nature of the process is highlighted, for example, in the woman's move towards self-containment as well as engagement with key others. Consistent with a phenomenological approach, the woman's account is prioritised in the study. Only after a close reading of her account is the material theorised in relation to the existing literature, particularly Mead's notion of a symbiotic or relational self. Finally a deconstructionist reading of some of the material in the case is provided.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science > School of Psychological Sciences
    Depositing User: Sarah Hall
    Date Deposited: 10 Mar 2020 14:23
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 17:58
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/31251

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